The present disclosure relates generally to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and more particularly, to utilizing an intermediate node to facilitate the vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
Many active safety (AS) and driver assistance (DA) systems require information from neighboring vehicles to perform their functions. Using these applications (AS and DA) in the context of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicles must discover one another and establish a communication link to exchange information. Although the standards are still evolving, the current framework for achieving periodic communication between vehicles involves each vehicle broadcasting its spatial information to other vehicles with no acknowledgement of reception. The only method for discovering the existence of a neighboring vehicle is to successfully receive a broadcast message from that vehicle. This method is likely to work well under normal circumstances when vehicles occupy the same roadway and there are no obstructions between the vehicles.
FIG. 1 depicts a scenario where the broadcast communication method fails. The broadcast range of vehicle A 102 is shown by the arc 112 in FIG. 1. Because vehicle C 102 is outside of the arc 112, it is unable to receive broadcast messages from vehicle A 102. If vehicle C 106 was within the arc 112, it is likely that the building 110 blocking the line-of-sight between the vehicles would also block the direct communication between the vehicles. Similarly, vehicle D 108 is also outside of the arc 112 that represents the broadcast range of vehicle A 102. Vehicle A 102 might not need to be notified about the presence of Vehicle D 108 because vehicle A 102 and vehicle D 108 do not have coincident paths.
It would be desirable for Vehicle A 102 to know about the presence of Vehicle C 106 and vice versa, particularly if the two vehicles have coincident paths.